BLUE DEVILS TOPPLE ANOTHER TOP-FIVE OPPONENT
Another week, another top-five win for the Blue Devils.
Duke took down No. 4 Ohio State, 73-68, in Cameron Indoor Stadium on Wednesday
for the Blue Devils' third win over a top-five team this season. Duke trailed
31-23 at the half but exploded for 50 points in the second half, thanks in part
to 17 second-half points from freshman Rasheed Sulaimon. Point guard Quinn Cook
continued his impressive early-season run, finishing with eight assists and 12
points while playing all but 21 seconds of the game. Senior forward Mason
Plumlee dominated the paint with 21 points and 17 rebounds while fellow team
captain Ryan Kelly chipped in 15 points and three blocks.

With wins over No. 2 Louisville, No. 3 Kentucky and No. 4
Ohio State, the Blue Devils are 3-0 against teams in the top five of the
Associated Poll. Those three wins make Duke the first team in NCAA history to defeat
three top-five opponents before the end of December.

DUKE BENCH COMES ALIVE IN WIN OVER DELAWAREDuke entered Saturday's game against Delaware with its
starting five accounting for 91.1 percent of the team's total scoring, which
ranked as the highest mark in college basketball. That number dropped following
the 88-50 win over the Blue Hens, as both Alex Murphy and Amile Jefferson
scored in double figures off the bench to lead four Duke reserves who combined
for 27 points. Prior to that, Duke's most combined points off the bench was 13
in the season opener against Georgia State. The bench production was part of an
all-around onslaught of the Blue Devils versus the Blue Hens, as Duke shot over
50 percent from the floor, 35 percent from three-point range and forced 15
Delaware turnovers with nine steals. Duke shut down Delaware's offense,
surrendering just three assists and holding the Blue Hens to 27.7 percent
shooting from the floor.

MURPHY, ZAFIROVSKI RECORD FIRST BUCKETSTwo Blue Devils scored their first career points in
Saturday's win over Delaware, as redshirt freshman Alex Murphy netted 10 points
- scoring all in the final 11:21 of the game - and senior Todd Zafirovski sank
a layup for his first career basket. The Cameron Crazies were well-aware of the
milestones, as the crowd erupted after each bucket. The two players took
drastically different routes to Duke - Murphy was a highly-touted recruit in
the 2012 class before reclassifying to the 2011 group where he still ranked
among the top 50 members of that class. Zafirovski, meanwhile, joined the Blue
Devils as a walk-on for the 2009-10 season and had yet to play in a game this
season until Saturday against the Blue Hens. Regardless of basketball resumes,
the Crazies treated both players as crowd favorites on Saturday night.

MASON PLUMLEE BREAKS DUNK RECORDJust seven games into his senior season, Mason Plumlee
broke a 22-year-old Duke record when he threw down his 148th career dunk on
Wednesday against Ohio State, surpassing the previous record of 147 dunks held
by former Duke high-flyer Robert Brickey (1987-90). Plumlee entered his senior
season ranked fourth with 130 dunks, but needed just seven games to break Brickey's
record. He pushed his career total to 150 on Saturday against Delaware.

THORNTON DELIVERS 10 ASSISTS
For all the attention point guard Quinn Cook has earned
for his play this season, his counterpart in the backcourt - junior Tyler
Thornton - had his own breakout game on Saturday against Delaware. Splitting
point guard duties with the playmaking Cook, Thornton dished out a career-high 10
assists in Duke's 88-50 rout of the Blue Hens while playing 33 minutes.
Thornton, who drew the start against Delaware in place of the injured Seth
Curry, assisted on 10 Duke buckets that led to 23 points, including the first
two points of senior forward Todd Zafirovski's career.

CURRY MISSES FIRST GAME AS A BLUE DEVILFor the first time in 79 games as a Blue Devil, Seth
Curry did not see any time on the court in Saturday's win over Delaware. Curry,
who had started 18 consecutive contests and had played in the previous 78 games
for Duke, missed the entirety of the Delaware game with an ankle injury that he
suffered against Ohio State on Wednesday. Curry had scored in double figures in
every game this season before exiting the Ohio State game with the injury. He
will get time to rest up over the next 17 days, however, as the Blue Devils
have just one game - a Dec. 8 meeting with Temple in East Rutherford, N.J. -
between now and Dec. 19.

"I thought it was going to be a terrible pass. I got too
happy. I just flicked it, so he saved me. A little Bobby Hurley-Grant Hill, I
guess."
-Point guard Quinn Cook on his long-range alley-oop pass
to Mason Plumlee against Ohio State (highlight
here)

STAT OF THE WEEKIn the 413 minutes that former Blue Devil and current
Detroit Piston has been on the court, the Pistons have outscored opponents by
25 points. In the 355 minutes Single has been on the bench, opponents have
outscored the Pistons by 62 points.
(Credit
to Dan Feldman, Detroit Free Press)